Ouroboros
by lloydskywalkers
Summary: Maybe it's coincidence, but the further Lloyd gets, the more it seems that the color green naturally attracts tragedy to its wearers in the worst of ways. (Written for Ninjago Angst Week, the theme being betrayal)


**So I wrote a couple oneshots for Ninjago Angst Week on** **Tumblr, and realized I never posted them here. May as well have them where I can find them easier! Here's the first of them, which is really just a bunch of green kids angsting. The theme was "betrayal" by the way!**

* * *

"You're kidding me."

Morro almost laughs as he stares at Wu, his hands trembling as he smoothes them across the cold fabric of his gi. Because this is a joke, it has to be. Wu can't possibly be telling him what he thinks he is.

"I'm sorry, Morro," Wu says, apology written in every line of his face. "But the weapons do not lie. I am afraid the destiny of the Green Ninja is not one that is meant for you."

Morro's mouth goes dry. He blinks, staring at Wu and waiting for him to take it back.

 _Take it back, please-_

Wu doesn't say anything else, still staring at Morro with that apologetic look on his face. Morro's heart skips a beat.

"But you said - you said it was me," he says, hating the desperation that leaks into his voice. "You trained me for this. I'm your best student - it _has_ to be me!"

Wu shakes his head, his eyes closing briefly in regret. Ice closes around Morro's heart, and he feels like he's been dealt a particularly nasty kick to the chest in training.

Except this is worse, because he's having to stand here and listen to someone else tell him he's just not good enough, just not _wanted_ -

And that person is Wu. Wu, the only one who's ever believed in him. The only one who's ever tried with Morro, who's ever given him a chance. The only who gave him a way to be worth something, to be something more than just the abandoned street orphan, and now-

Now he's taking that away.

The betrayal stings worse than Morro could have imagined.

"Morro, please, just listen to me." Wu's voice is soft, cautious - another time Morro could have heard it as paternal. Now he just sees Wu approaching him like he's dangerous, like he's a wild animal ready to bite.

Morro takes the crippling wave of shame and sorrow and heartbreak and twists it - turns it into hatred. His fists tighten, rage bubbling up in his chest like hot lava.

"You promised," he says, glaring at Wu. "You _promised_."

Wu's expression crumples in pain, and Morro hates him more for it. Because he knows what that means. It's not a concession.

"You're a liar," Morro whispers. The hatred takes root in his heart, and anger chases away the ice, setting him on fire instead.

"You're a _liar!_ " he yells, kicking the glinting golden weapons to the ground. Wu starts, his eyes wide.

"Morro-"

"And you're _wrong_ ," Morro hisses, cutting over him. "You're wrong, and I'm going to prove it to you. I'm going to prove it to everyone. I _am_ the Green Ninja, and nothing you or anyone else says is going to change that."

"Morro, please." Wu sounds heartbroken, his eyes beseeching as he reaches for him.

Morro almost hesitates.

Almost.

"No," he growls, yanking away. "Go find some other student to lie to. I've got better things to do."

And with that, Morro stalks away from him, storming out the door. He has no idea where he's going, or even where to start. It doesn't matter. Morro's anger is more than enough to carry him away from the monastery, away from the only home he's ever known, without once looking back.

Wu can lie to him all he wants, but he's still wrong. Morro's going to prove that to him, if he has to burn down the rest of the world to do it.

He doesn't care what Wu thinks.

* * *

Years later, Morro will try to ignore the screams of Wu's own nephew that echo in his mind, and tell himself it's fair turnabout.

* * *

There's ash in her hair, coating her clothes and staining her fingertips. It might just be dust, but she's not sure. It's everywhere - drifting in the air, speckled across the streets, peppering the hair of the emergency medic tending to her.

Harumi feels it in her throat, choking her like it did when the elevator doors slammed shut. She wonders if it's the last thing her parents ever felt.

"So much for the ninja." The female medic sounds merely disappointed. Indifferent. As if the ninja only failed to stop some property damage, not lose her entire family.

"Did you see that thing?" The male medic glances up , his expression still awed. "Lord Garmadon single-handedly destroyed it. He's the real hero."

Something in Harumi's chest clicks at that. She catalogues the name away, stores it by the festering wound of loss and pain inside her.

"What a brave little girl you are," the woman tells her, her voice kind and clinical. "Where are your parents, child?"

Harumi's heart constricts, but her expression remains unchanged. A mask, she imagines, painted across her face.

"Do…you have a name?" The woman sounds hesitant now, likely thrown off by Harumi's silence.

Harumi doesn't say anything. There's nothing to say. No one cares about the words of a traumatized little girl, anyways.

Not the ninja, that's for sure.

"Well, aren't you the quiet one."

Harumi grinds the ash between her fingers absently, watching it stain her fingertips and darken her nails. She resists the urge to wipe it off on her shirt - this is the only one she has left, after all. She's wearing the only belongings she's got left in the world.

Everything else is gone, destroyed in the wreckage of her apartment. Her mother's jewelry, her father's books, Harumi's drawings, her toys - all her ninja, so carefully collected, are likely crushed to dust or burnt to ash.

It's fitting, Harumi thinks. That her heroes, the colorful figures she's looked up to for so long, were destroyed right along with the trust she had in them.

They were supposed to protect her, they were supposed to protect her parents, _where were they_ -

She hopes her toys burned up. She hopes the ninjas were swallowed by flames, plastic twisting and melting until it became something unrecognizable, blackened and hollowed by the flames.

She's going to do the same to him. To the city's precious Green Ninja, the one who was supposed to save them-

She's going to break him apart, burn him until he doesn't recognize himself.

For her parents. For the people the ninja were sworn to protect, the people they failed. For herself-

Harumi's eyes smart, but she doesn't cry. The child who would've wept openly, who would've screamed and cried for the parents that aren't coming back, is dead in the rubble of her home.

The quiet one, they called her? Harumi can play quiet. She can play quiet for years.

But eventually, she'll break the silence. She'll make them pay. Then everyone will hear the same screams she does, the same dying screams of everything they love crumbling to dust. The screams as their world crashes down around them.

All Harumi has to do is wait.

* * *

Years later, Harumi will watch the son of her hero crumple to his knees and weep as his world falls apart, and she'll tell herself he had it coming.

* * *

The worst part about this is that Lloyd, naive fool that he is withstanding, should have seen it coming.

Standing in the Oni temple, the Mask of Hatred clutched tightly in his hands, trying to force away the tremors that have nothing to do with the cold as Harumi defends herself-

He doesn't want to believe it. He doesn't want to believe that the girl who saved him on the rooftop, the girl he'd talked to so easily that night - that his friend, whatever they are, were, could have been - he doesn't want to believe that Harumi is a lie.

Her words are sweet, soft as always as she approaches him - but they're careful. Too careful, in a way Lloyd's too familiar with. She's lying to him, and Lloyd is struck by the sudden cold swoop of realization that she's probably been lying to him all along.

His mind revolts. He can't. He can't do this, not again - he can't tear down everything he's built with someone because all of the sudden they've ripped the floor out from under him. He can't rewatch his trust and belief in another person shatter. He can't close off and doubt everything and anything about himself for months as he tries to figure out _why-_

Because he _should_ have seen it coming. It's happened before, hasn't it? Once again, Lloyd's put too much trust in one person, just to watch it shatter. Maybe it's his fault. Maybe it's not fair to them, to Harumi, to have someone like Lloyd putting that much faith in her.

Maybe this is why it always happens, because the problem here is _Lloyd_ -

His back presses against the altar, and he's got nowhere left to retreat to. Harumi is almost upon him now, and he should stop her - if what he thinks (knows) is true, he's in danger. From her, because she's the Quiet One, the one that tried to hurt his family, that captured Cole, the one that _almost killed Zane_.

He _can't_ , though. She's still Harumi - she's still the girl with the knowing eyes who sees him, who's easy to talk to and fun to laugh with, and he doesn't want to lose that.

She knows it, too. She knows he won't push her back, edging closer to him as she continues to assure him that he's wrong, _does he even know how crazy he sounds right now_ -

Lloyd swallows, trying to pull the situation back into control. He's still got the mask. Harumi hasn't attacked him yet. He can still fix this, he _can_ , he just needs to talk it out with her and maybe-

But then she goes and tells him she _loves him_ , and Lloyd's breath stutters out of him like he's been choked.

There aren't many people in Lloyd's life that have claimed to love him. And he's alright with that, really.

But it's the fact that almost all of them share one terrible, inevitable thing in common.

Harumi accuses him of not being able to understand. Lloyd wants to laugh. Or scream, maybe, he's not sure.

Because he does. Too well, he knows exactly what it feels like.

It's is the realization that no one's ever coming back to take him away from that awful school. It's the drop of his stomach on the rooftop of Darkley's, his feet slipping across tiles as he realizes he's been abandoned. It's the crack of his heart as Kai looms above him, staff in hand as his eyes glow red and hateful, yelling at Lloyd for stealing what should've been his. It's cackling laughter as Lloyd is dragged into the Cursed Realm, his uncle's old student crafty until the end.

Lloyd knows exactly why Harumi's this angry, and it scares him. It's the same kind of hatred he saw in Morro, the same kind of desperation to make others suffer as much as you have.

Lloyd can only hope that it won't drag his friends down with it.

* * *

Weeks later, standing on the ruined top of a tower, Lloyd will lower his hands instead of striking out at his father, the steady hum of his power abating.

Lloyd isn't going to pretend he knows what's right or wrong here. But he's not going to be another hollowed-out victim to hatred.

He's already done that once. He learned his lesson.


End file.
